You Bet Your Life
Stop the presses! A member of the Senate has the same disease as millions of other Americans.
Don’t get me wrong. I take no pleasure in the fact that Senator Chris Dodd has prostate cancer. But the level of furor over his recent announcement is truly puzzling to me, as is the lack of some very important questions left unasked by the bastions of truth in the press.
Dodd announced last week that he was diagnoses with early-stage prostate cancer. The reality is that over 230,000 American men are diagnosed with the same disease every year. Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer and is the number one type of cancer (other than skin cancers) in the United States, even surpassing breast cancer in women. As Dodd stated, if you are going to get a cancer this may be the one to get as the recovery rate is excellent. Today, only 1 in 32 men diagnosed with this disease die from it.
Now there are a number of reasons for this limited number of deaths, not the least of which is that this cancer is fairly slow in its advance and strikes elderly men who may well die of other causes before the cancer is sufficient to kill them. It is also eminently treatable, especially if diagnosed early. Treatments range from the standard chemotherapy and radiation to extremes like surgical castration. New diagnostic methods and treatments are brought to the public every year.
I had a close friend die of prostate cancer. Every death attributable to this disease is tragic. But if 230,000 men are diagnosed every year Lord knows how many others are tested with good results. If all these men are getting tested and treatment for the leading cancer in the United States has a survival rate in excess of 97%, where is the “health care crisis” I keep hearing about?
Senator Dodd credited his excellent Senatorial health insurance, which covers annual physicals, for the early diagnosis. He went on to say that this is the reason that he is fighting for the passage of the ObamaCare health insurance bill. But 230,000 other men are getting the same benefit now. My question is, if the ObamaCare plan is so good how come the House and Senate members are not going to be covered by it? I find it most interesting that nobody in the liberal lapdog mainstream press has asked that question either.
At the same time as Senator Dodd was talking about his health issues, California was announcing a $1.4 billion reduction in the state-run Medi-Cal insurance they offer. Why is California reducing their state run health insurance? Because they are going broke from running the state economy the same way Barack Obama wants to run the national economy.
Overtaxing has driven business out of California to friendlier and financially more realistic environs. Giving away free health care to illegal aliens has forced numerous California hospitals to close their doors, adding the burden onto the remaining health care centers. California found they simply could not tax enough to spend all they wanted to spend, so they had to cut back on some of the spending or become insolvent.
The ObamaCare plan is projected to cost taxpayers an additional $1 trillion dollars. But in reality the cost of this plan could run much higher as employers opt to drop their insurance offerings and place people on the government dole.
The recent government meltdown regarding the administration of the comparatively small $1 billion Cash for Clunkers program shows just how quickly these government programs can overwhelm the system. Car dealers were forced to hire people just to do the necessary paperwork to get $4500 new car rebates. If that’s for a simple billion dollar car sales program just imagine the level of bureaucratic red tape, paperwork and possible catastrophe involved in a national health insurance plan handling 1000 times as much money and infinitely more paperwork.
Even though I disagree with most of what Senator Dodd stands for, I wish him a complete and speedy recovery. But more than that I wish he and his fellow Senators would abandon their current health care insurance and jump on board the ObamaCare plan. I look for the Members of the US House to do the same. Especially Democrats.
Don’t just vote for the plan, sign up for it. Don’t tell us what a great plan this will be, show us that you are willing to bet your life and your family’s life and physical well being on it.
It’s kind of that whole goose and gander thing, right?
